Word-stem tones cue suffixes in the brain

Results from the present event-related potentials (ERP) study show that tones on Swedish word stems can rapidly pre-activate upcoming suffixes, even when the word stem does not carry any lexical meaning. Results also show that listeners are able to rapidly restore suffixes which are replaced with a cough. Accuracy in restoring suffixes correlated positively with the amplitude of an anterior negative ERP elicited by stem tones. This effect is proposed to reflect suffix pre-activation. Suffixes that were cued by an incorrect tone elicited a left-anterior negativity and a P600, suggesting that the correct processing of the suffix is crucially tied to the activation of the preceding validly associated tone.

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“…2010, 2013, 2015; Roll 2015). In previous studies, this effect has been viewed as a positively charged effect for accent 2.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stem Tones Pre-activate Suffixes in the Brain

Söderström

Horne

Roll

2016

J Psycholinguist Res

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“…This study suggests that South Swedish word accents are distinguished in speech production by means of several phonetic (articulatory and acoustic) dimensions: F0 timing, creaky voice predominantly in A1 , a longer duration of a post-stress consonant in A2, different gestural coordination at word onset (also mirroring in the acoustic domain in terms of the F3-F2 difference), and an earlier reached target of the vocalic gesture in A2. Future research will need to evaluate the perceptual relevance of these potential correlates of Swedish word accents and their usefulness, e.g., in the on-line prediction of upcoming suffixes [36].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This would provide an earlier acoustic vowel onset in A2 than A1, which in turn might be perceptually motivated, supporting listeners anticipating the nature of the upcoming lexical accentual tone (a low tone in A2). An early recognition of lexical tones is advantageous as it has been shown for Swedish how word stem tones are used by listeners to predict upcoming word endings [36]. We will leave the verification of this perception-based interpretation to future research.…”

Section: Gestural Co-ordination In Onsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Multidimensionality: Acoustic and Articulatory Correlates of Swedish Word Accents

Lundmark¹,

Ambrazaitis²,

Ewald³

2017

Interspeech 2017

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This study investigates acoustic and articulatory correlates of South Swedish word accents (Accent 1 vs. 2) -a tonal distinction traditionally associated with F0 timing. The study is motivated by previous findings on (i) the acoustic complexity of tonal prosody and (ii) tonal-articulatory interplay in other languages.Acoustic and articulatory (EMA) data from two controlled experiments are reported (14 speakers in total; pilot EMA recordings with 2 speakers). Apart from the well-established F0 timing pattern, results of Experiment 1 reveal a longer duration of a post-stress consonant in Accent 2 than in Accent 1, a higher degree of creaky voice in Accent 1, as well as a deviant (two-peak) pitch pattern in Accent 2 for one of eight discourse conditions used in the experiment. Experiment 2 reveals an effect of word accent on vowel articulation, as the tongue body gesture target is reached earlier in Accent 2. It also suggests slight but (marginally) significant word-accent effects on word-initial gestural coordination, taking slightly different forms in the two speakers, as well as corresponding differences in word-initial formant patterns. Results are discussed concerning their potential perceptual relevance, as well as with reference to the c-center effect discussed within Articulatory Phonology.

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“…Depending on the suffixes attached, the word stem receives either a low tone (Accent 1) or a high tone (Accent 2); for instance, a word like lek - ‘game’ is realized with an initial low tone if followed by a singular definite suffix – en , as in lek-en ‘the game’, whereas it receives a high tone if followed by a plural suffix – ar , as in lek-ar ‘games’ (Roll et al, 2013). It has been argued that while the association between high tones and suffixes is defined in the mental lexicon (marked), low tones are assigned postlexically (default) in Central Swedish (Riad, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015) 4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been argued that while the association between high tones and suffixes is defined in the mental lexicon (marked), low tones are assigned postlexically (default) in Central Swedish (Riad, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015) 4 . The electrophysiological effects of the lexical association of the tone with suffixes have been studied by investigating high and low stem tones with matching and mismatching suffixes (Roll et al, 2010, 2013). The aim of these studies was to examine if the stem tones function as cues for the associated suffixes and trigger an expectation for the following suffix information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lexical Specification of Prosodic Information in Swedish: Evidence from Mismatch Negativity

et al. 2016

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Like that of many other Germanic languages, the stress system of Swedish has mainly undergone phonological analysis. Recently, however, researchers have begun to recognize the central role of morphology in these systems. Similar to the lexical specification of tonal accent, the Swedish stress system is claimed to be morphologically determined and morphemes are thus categorized as prosodically specified and prosodically unspecified. Prosodically specified morphemes bear stress information as part of their lexical representations and are classified as tonic (i.e., lexically stressed), pretonic and posttonic, whereas prosodically unspecified morphemes receive stress through a phonological rule that is right-edge oriented, but is sensitive to prosodic specification at that edge. The presence of prosodic specification is inferred from vowel quality and vowel quantity; if stress moves elsewhere, vowel quality and quantity change radically in phonologically stressed morphemes, whereas traces of stress remain in lexically stressed morphemes. The present study is the first to investigate whether stress is a lexical property of Swedish morphemes by comparing mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to vowel quality and quantity changes in phonologically stressed and lexically stressed words. In a passive oddball paradigm, 15 native speakers of Swedish were presented with standards and deviants, which differed from the standards in formant frequency and duration. Given that vowel quality and quantity changes are associated with morphological derivations only in phonologically stressed words, MMN responses are expected to be greater in phonologically stressed words than in lexically stressed words that lack such an association. The results indicated that the processing differences between phonologically and lexically stressed words were reflected in the amplitude and topography of MMN responses. Confirming the expectation, MMN amplitude was greater for the phonologically stressed word than for the lexically stressed word and showed a more widespread topographic distribution. The brain did not only detect vowel quality and quantity changes but also used them to activate memory traces associated with derivations. The present study therefore implies that morphology is directly involved in the Swedish stress system and that changes in phonological shape due to stress shift cue upcoming stress and potential addition of a morpheme.

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Word-stem tones cue suffixes in the brain

Cited by 31 publications

References 10 publications

Stem Tones Pre-activate Suffixes in the Brain

Stem Tones Pre-activate Suffixes in the Brain

Exploring Multidimensionality: Acoustic and Articulatory Correlates of Swedish Word Accents

Lexical Specification of Prosodic Information in Swedish: Evidence from Mismatch Negativity

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